Social Issues In The Movie Crooklyn

Black children do not get to be children. Unfortunately, a myriad of forces contributes to their accelerated maturation. One of these forces is the environment, and Spike Lee’s, Crooklyn (1994), bolsters this claim. The bulk of the film takes place in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. This neighborhood has historically housed a predominantly African-American community, which is significant. Blackness disadvantages black children, and prevents them from having a childhood. In the film, Carolyn and Woody operate on a strict budget. Their lack of disposal income indicates that they are not wealthy. Both characters’ economic status, coupled with their race, results in them living in Brooklyn. Carolyn and Woody’s blackness is the

reason they are in Brooklyn to begin with. The understanding of this point is crucial because there exist two environments in Brooklyn that prevent black children from being children. They are the physical environment and the social environment. The goal of this paper is to strengthen the central theme—black children don’t get to be children—by analyzing how the environment in Crooklyn, robs Troy of her childhood.
The first environment to analyze is the physical environment. The physical environment is defined as the tangible structures and byproducts of such structures that affect the lives of those who live in them. An example of a tangible structure is a brownstone apartment. A byproduct of this structure would be a repugnant scent that emanates from a neighbor. The odoriferous scent should be considered a byproduct because the proximity between neighbors is slim in a Brownstone apartment, and therefore inhabitants find their lives inconvenienced by the independent actions of their neighbors.
The physical environment in Crooklyn hinders Troy from being a child through noise and congestion.

Noise infringes on the tranquility characters enjoy, and congestion causes noise by cramming people into spaces that are not voluminous. As a result, when conflict sparks, boisterous crowds form effortlessly. Essentially, noise and congestion prevent Troy from being a child by causing her to frequently be in vicinity to conflict, which exposes her to strife other children are ignorant to. Two scenes in Crooklyn exemplify this point. The first occurs roughly thirty minutes into the film during a spat between the Carmichael children and their neighbor Tony, who accuses the children of throwing trash into his area. This scene is rife with noise; the non-diegetic sound of a drowsy beat and low hum, the back and forth between Tony, the children, and Carolyn, the growing crowd, and the barking of dogs in the distance. First, the noise successfully places Vic, a war veteran who lives above the Carmichaels (congestion), in the vicinity of conflict because the arguing occurs outside of his home. Soon, Vic enters the scene and separates Carolyn and Tony. Tony continues to berate the Carmichaels and Vic responds with his fist. Tory, who was at the store, later enters the scene. She observes the police cars and hears the quarreling. The police handcuff Vic and Tory witnesses the entire scene. Noise and Congestion have exposed Tory to the questionable arrest of a black man she admires.

Most children don’t witness the arrest of an adult they are fond of, but Tory does. Tory now realizes how temporary relationships are because law enforcement can arbitrarily remove people from her life. Tory learns this lesson so early because of her environment. Does this same scene play out in the affluent Virginia suburbs of Tory’s aunt and uncle? Probably not, for a slew of reasons. One reason is that the houses in the suburb are spaced out. The conflict arose over the accusation of trash being thrown in Tony’s area. In Brooklyn, Tony and the Carmichaels are bordered by a flimsy gate, while in the suburbs, wide driveways separate neighbors. A second reason is that Vic would have resided in the next house over, and so the noise wouldn’t disturb him to the point of walking three driveways over to the scene of the squabble. Without a doubt, Tory does not learn such a harsh lesson if she doesn’t live in Brooklyn. Noise and congestion are components of a physical environment that rob Tory of her youth.
The second example occurs forty minutes into the film.

Within this scene, Woody and Carolyn argue, the boys refuse to turn-off the television, Troy’s brother begs her to open the bathroom door, and out of place, upbeat, non-diegetic music blares in the background. Yet again, noise places Troy in the vicinity of conflict. She finally gives in to her younger brother’s pleas and opens the bathroom door, only to witness her mother being carried into the narrow (congestion) hallway, kicking and screaming. Congestion augments to the discord because the seven characters find themselves crammed into a tight hallway, and moments later all seven are sliding down the steps, flailing their arms, and screaming their lungs out. The chaos culminates into Carolyn telling Woody: “you get out of my house” (44:55). Moreover, Carolyn tells her husband to leave the house, in front of Troy and her brothers. Noise and congestion bring Troy into the vicinity of conflict, and then exposes her to moments the average child is ignorant to. This moment is watching her father get kicked out of the house. Other children may notice their parents separate, but most children don’t have a front row seat to the exact moment of the separation. To reiterate, the physical environment Troy lives in is responsible for this moment. This scene doesn’t occur in the suburb where her aunt and uncle live. One reason is that houses in the suburbs are also more capacious than apartment rooms. This means that one, there

wouldn’t have been so much congestion around the stairway, so Carolyn doesn’t get hurt. Second, in a large home, Carolyn and Woody can simply sleep in different rooms or floors. They are not forced to be in proximity of each other amidst their anger. In this scenario, Carolyn doesn’t have to banish Woody out of the house, just out of her sight. Instead, Troy is forced to watch her father’s removal from her home, which introduces strife that other children are ignorant to.